Crossed out circle on start up

Question

Crossed out circle on start up

Hello all,
I'm having an issue with my 24" iMac (mid 2009). Whenever I start up my machine, I hear the start up chime then see the apple logo with the spinning gear. After about 30 seconds, the apple logo changes to a crossed out circle.

So, I tried booting in safe mode by holding down shift and turning on the computer. After this, OS X will boot up just fine. I will then restart the machine and OS X will reboot regularly. But after I shut down the iMac, I encounter the same exact issue again.

I have ran a hardware test with my Snow Leopard disk and found no issues. My hard drive seems to have no issues and my S.M.A.R.T. status is verified. I have also tried reseting my PRAM, but am still running into the same issue.

So, what do I do now???
Thanks,
-Ryan

24" iMac 3.06GHz Core 2 Duo, Mac OS X (10.5.4), Snow Leopard 10.6.2

Posted on Mar 2, 2010 8:06 PM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

Carolyn Samit

Level 10

165,673 points

Mar 2, 2010 9:24 PM in response to RemarkableRyan

HI,

Go here... Mac OS X: "Broken folder" icon, prohibitory sign, or kernel panic when computer starts

Also, start up with only the keyboard and mouse attached, no other peripherals and see if that makes a difference.

And go to your Apple Menu/Software updates. Make sure all your system software is up to date.

Repair disk permissions.

Quit any open applications/programs. Launch Disk Utility. (Applications/Utilities) Select MacintoshHD in the panel on the left, select the FirstAid tab. Click: Repair Disk Permissions. When it's finished from the Menu Bar, Quit Disk Utility and restart your Mac. If you see a long list of "messages" in the permissions window, it's ok. That can be ignored. As long as you see, "Permissions Repair Complete" when it's finished... you're done. Quit Disk Utility and *restart your Mac.*

Go to /Library/Startup Items. Move any files in that folder to the Trash.

And open System Preferences/Accounts and select the Login Items tab. Delete any apps listed there to launch on startup.

Carolyn 🙂

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Answer 2

Mar 3, 2010 12:22 PM in response to Carolyn Samit

I inserted my Snow Leopard disc and tried reinstalling the OS. Seems to be working for now, I will continue to test for a couple of days and post my results.
Thanks.

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Answer 3

Mar 3, 2010 1:39 PM in response to RemarkableRyan

You're welcome.

🙂

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Answer 4

Mar 3, 2010 2:24 PM in response to Carolyn Samit

so why doesn't this link work all the time? I tried clicking on it and copy/paste in url and I get "we're sorry the page you are looking for can't be found."

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Answer 5

iyacyas

Level 4

1,536 points

Mar 3, 2010 2:45 PM in response to crazzyheart

It's working here...

Here is the address, try it!

http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1892

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Answer 6

Mar 4, 2010 7:04 AM in response to iyacyas

Ok, it didn't work. After shutting down last night, the same issue occurred this morning after turning on the iMac.

Since I have Snow Leopard and not OS 9, would I be able to do the "mach_kernel" method? I have also read somewhere that I could copy the mach_kernel file from another mac (i.e. my macbook pro) and replace the one on my iMac. Could this be done?

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Answer 7

Mar 4, 2010 8:26 AM in response to RemarkableRyan

FIXED!

So it tunes out this issue was related to my recent uninstalling of Norton Antivirus software for Mac. I found the answer here in this another forum:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=11147614

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